Contents

Appearance

Dante

Dante is a middle-aged man with light-brown skin and short dark-brown hair with a large bald spot on the top of his head. He has prominent wrinkles, mostly on his forehead and cheeks. Since his appearance in "The New Lars", he wears a white polo shirt underneath a gray jacket, a pair of beige pants, brown loafers, and gold-rimmed glasses.

Lars was confirmed to be of Filipino descent, given his surname and other traits. Dante is most likely to be Filipino, bequeathing the surname Barriga.

Martha

Martha is a middle-aged woman with light-brown skin and long red hair. Martha wears yellow tinted circular glasses with a brown rim. She wears a cyan sleeveless ankle length dress, with a fish-like pattern. She wears purple shoes with magenta flowers on it and has a gray band on them.

Personality

Typical of most parents, Martha and Dante want the best for their son Lars and become very worried when he fails to do the right thing. They become a bit stressed out when Lars gets mostly failing grades on his report card, but insist on speaking with him for his sake.

Martha also is a bit nosy (as when she sees Lars running with Sadie, she insists on following him) and impulsive (in her throwing a tomato at Mayor Dewey during a town meeting for not knowing her son was still missing, and her being prepared to do it again at a public speech).

History

In "The New Lars", Steven inside of Lars realizes that he must have jumped into Lars' mind, and says that he will do his best to respect Lars' body and privacy. After getting dressed, "Lars" walks down the stairs, and Martha is whispering to his dad, Dante, that they have to talk to him about something.

He greets them, and Dante greets him back. Martha gives him breakfast at the table, and holds his chin as she says it good to see him, and reveals that his real name is Laramie. "Lars" asks who Laramie is, and Martha corrects herself by saying "I mean... Lars," and smiles back at him. Dante tells him that school might be a touchy subject, but says that they need to talk about it, before handing him his report card. "Lars" literally reads the grade letters of the report card, trying to pronounce them but ends up saying, "Ffffffbdf?", and that it does not spell anything.

Martha reveals that she and Dante let him live in the attic, but now that his grades are slipping, they are asking him for a little effort. Lars says that they both seem nice and that he does not want to let either of them down. Lars says that he promises to do his very best as being their son, which shocks his parents, and Martha mentions that he is wearing the heart plugs for his ears that she got him.

Later, Martha and Dante are eating ice cream, when they see "Lars" running with Sadie Miller (who they do not seem to know). They decide to follow him to find out where he is going.

At the temple, Lars attempts to open the door but is unable to so Sadie kicks the door open, and the two break into the house. Martha and Dante, however, assume that he is a burglar and they comfort each other saying that they knew this day would come soon. The couple follows "Lars" and Sadie into the house, and sees "Lars" slapping Steven over and over again. Steven wakes up, and they switch minds back, and Lars, back into his body, is confused about the situation. He is shocked to find out that he and Steven had switched minds, and Lars yells in anger that he was acting weird all day and they liked it, and Martha, not knowing of the situation apologizes for his behavior, saying he wasn't acting like this in the morning.

Dante and Martha appear at various public events after Sadie informs them that Lars is still in space. When Mayor Dewey mentions not knowing about who Lars is or that he is still missing, Martha hits Mayor Dewey in the face with a tomato. The couple show up later at a public speech event between Nanefua Pizza and Bill Dewey. Martha is seen brandishing a tomato just before Mayor Dewey starts speaking.

Relationships

Each other

Martha is Dante's wife, whom he seems to spend much time with. Martha and her husband Dante comfort each other when they see Lars is not succeeding. When they notice Lars' change in behavior (due to Steven being inside of his body), the two seem a lot more relaxed and are happy that their son has taken a huge change in his life. When they see Lars break into the Temple, Martha thinks that Lars is going in there to rob the house, which causes her and Dante to comfort each other once more.

Much of their relationship is unknown, but after Steven (who was in control of Lar's body at the time) leaves the house, Dante and Martha are relieved that Lars took the news of him failing his classes well since Lars did not swear or become aggravated. This hints at how Lars has dealt with this situation in the past.

Martha apologized to Steven before knowing what happened when Steven went back to his body and Lars was making a ruckus in "The New Lars" at the temple. Other than this, the couple has presumably never spoken to Steven.

In "Dewey Wins", Bill Dewey upsets the Barrigas when he states that he doesn't know or remember their son after the events of his kidnapping. Martha, overcome with anger, hits Dewey in the face with a tomato and is seen threatening to do it again later on at a public speech.

As Ian Jones-Quartey has confirmed that Lars is of Filipino descent[1][2], it is implied that one of his parents is of Filipino origin (possibly Dante, who would presumably be the bearer of the last name "Barriga" before marrying Martha).

Their surname, Barriga, is of Spanish origin, a common trait among Filipino surnames due to Spanish influence in the Philippines.

In "The Good Lars", Lars reveals he is very familiar with eating and baking with Ube, a species of purple yams popular in the Philippines.